If you’ve ever reshaped your routine, sacrificed a social life, or felt the heavy weight of love and guilt that comes with caring for an anxious pet, this month’s giveaway is going to hit very close to home.
Thanks to our friends at Hachette Australia, we are giving away 4 copies (total prize pool $140.00) of Anna Heyward’s moving, deeply relatable memoir: Living with Freddie: How a Dog Taught Me to Be Human.
Why Every Dog Lover Needs to Read This
When Anna Heyward adopted Freddie, an Italian Greyhound, she expected the usual joys and challenges of dog ownership. What she didn't expect was a pup with a severe, 30-second separation anxiety limit—a condition that completely upended her career, her relationships, and her everyday life.
Set against the bustling backdrop of New York City, Living with Freddie is a poignant, witty, and raw exploration of what happens when the bond with a pet demands everything you’ve got. It’s a book for anyone who has:
- Felt isolated by a pet’s behavioural challenges or struggled with the guilt of feeling overwhelmed.
- Wondered about the deep inner life of their dog and how canine sensory perception differs from our own.
- Loved an animal unconditionally, even when things got impossibly tough.
Exclusive Q&A: In Conversation with Author Anna Heyward
We were lucky enough to catch up with Anna to ask a few burning questions about her journey with Freddie, isolation, and how her understanding of animal consciousness evolved.
Q1: You reshaped your entire life, your career, and even your relationships to accommodate Freddie's 30-second anxiety limit. Looking back, what was the exact moment you realised you were no longer just managing a pet, but completely viewing the world through his eyes?
Anna: "This question is unexpectedly difficult to answer. I don’t think there was a single moment, or perhaps there were distinct moments but I wasn’t able to recognise them at the time, because I think I was in denial.
In terms of managing him: There were a lot of small moments that probably should have caused me to think a bit harder about what was happening. When I tried to miss my brother’s wedding to stay home with Freddie, maybe. Several 'small' lies I told Aaron to make it seem like Freddie wasn’t the driving factor behind my decisions—things that didn’t even make it into the book. I should probably have realised sooner that what was happening wasn’t sustainable.
In terms of actually being able to view the world through his eyes? Well, that ability remains elusive, of course, but there probably were distinct moments when I realised the way I saw things had changed. Those were smaller moments. In the middle section of the book, when I found him in the woods and realised I had been filtering out certain sounds, maybe. I began to see the metropolis of New York City very differently, too, the longer I considered how he experienced it."
Q2: Severe separation anxiety can make owners feel incredibly isolated and trapped. For anyone currently sitting in a room they feel like they can't leave because of their dog, what is the most important truth you hope they take away from Living with Freddie?
Anna: “That it’s really hard. That they’re experiencing something quite difficult. A lot of people around you won’t get it, and will think you’re exaggerating, or that you’re worrying too much, or that you’re being dramatic. I don’t blame them, because I wouldn't have been able to understand it before I went through it either.”
“Living with an animal with SepAnx can become an extreme burden, and the feelings of isolation, or of being trapped, are very valid and understandable. It’s terribly bad luck, and it’s not your fault. I’m sure you’re doing the best you can, and I’m sure you feel guilty anyway.”
Q3: Freddie completely changed how you view animal consciousness. What is one thing you now know about the inner emotional life of dogs that the science textbooks completely missed?
Anna: "I wouldn’t say that there are things that I know that science textbooks don’t! Getting acquainted with the science of animal behaviour, going to grad school, those were part of changing how I saw things.
One completely transformative element thereof has been understanding the spectrum of physical sense that other animals possess that we don’t. Dogs’ sense of smell, for example, is how we’ve been able to test and demonstrate their sense of self-awareness. It’s quite hard for us to understand, even if we know the information intellectually, that the primary way they 'view' the world is olfactory. We’ve known this for a long time, but only recently managed to design experiments that help us understand how dogs relate to their own smell vs. those of others.
Can you imagine getting around the world being able to sense the earth’s magnetic core? I can’t, but birds can. Platypuses are able to detect electrical fields and pressure changes around them; a kind of 'intelligence' that we’re pretty much numb to. There are a lot of complex behaviours in the animals we live with that we still don’t have good answers for.
Then again, there was a lot of dog behaviour that, in reality, turned out to be simpler than I’d built it up to be in my mind, because I’d been complicating it with my human assumptions."
HOW TO ENTER
To be in the running to WIN 1 of 4 copies of Living with Freddie by Anna Heyward, simply follow these steps:
- Like our official giveaway post on Facebook or Instagram (published Monday 03/08/2026).
- Follow our Facebook Page and/or Instagram Account.
- Answer the Entry Question in the comments:
In 25 words or less, what’s the biggest compromise or funny lifestyle change you’ve made to keep your dog happy?
Terms & Conditions
- Dates: Competition opens on Monday 3rd August 2026 (6:00pm AEST) and closes on Tuesday 11th August 2026 (11:59pm AEST).
- Eligibility: Open to Australian residents only.
- Delivery: Please allow 1–2 weeks for direct delivery from the publisher, Hachette Australia.
- To Enter: Like the giveaway post (03/08/26) and submit your answer to the entry prompt via the Facebook or Instagram page.
- Judging: This is a game of skill. Entries will be judged by the Australian Dog Lover team based on the most creative, original, or heartfelt statements.
- Limits: Entrants may only enter once per platform.
- Claiming: Winners will be notified on social media. Prizes not claimed within 48 hours will be redrawn.
*Entry into the competition is deemed acceptance of all terms and conditions.
